La Leche League

  • Thread starter Thread starter mass4life
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

mass4life

Guest
Do any mothers out there know of a Catholic equivalent to La Leche League?

LLL is a wonderful source of support and information for breastfeeding mothers. I was considering becoming a leader.

Thanks for any information you may have.
 
But I thought La Leche was Catholic. Or at least they were started by Catholics. Maybe I’m wrong about that, though.

There seems to be some crossover between info at LLL and The Couple to Couple League. Have you been involved with the CCL?

Stephanie
 
I believe La Leche League was started by a few Catholic mothers, but I am not certain. LLL is non-denominational, international, non-…anything. I cannot speak about my Catholic faith at all in an LLL meeting setting. This would be difficult for me, and among other reasons, is one of the reasons I am not pursuing becoming a leader.

I am a member of CCL. Some of the information does overlap, which is nice.

There exists a devotion to Our Lady of La Leche, it’s location is St. Augustine, Florida. I do not know the legend of this devotion.

I believe breastfeeding is the greatest mothering tool the Lord endowed to mothers. This is how the Blessed Virgin Mary fed and comforted our Lord!
 
I’m nursing my 2 year old as I’m posting right now! 😃

Stephanie
 
Actually LLL was began by Catholic women and the organization was named after our Lady of the plentifulMilk (and the Church the Spanish dedicated to her in 16th century Florida.

Sadly (LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN OUR SECULAR WORLD) the founders decided that in order to “reach” more people…all references to God or religion must be removed…we can’t risk offending anyone don’t cha know?

Statue of Our Lady of the Plentiful Milk:

http://www.oldcity.com/sites/mission/images/statue.jpg

That the LLL organization was named after.

Here is the link: oldcity.com/sites/mission/statue.html
 
Is that statue in a church? If so, the folks who balked at a woman nursing in church on that other thread should see that statue. 😃
 
40.png
mass4life:
Do any mothers out there know of a Catholic equivalent to La Leche League?

LLL is a wonderful source of support and information for breastfeeding mothers. I was considering becoming a leader.

Thanks for any information you may have.
Click to expand...
You could post something at church say for others nursing moms, a support type group that could meet once a week, they do that in my sisters church and those women even after nursing is done still remain very close friends and the kids play together, so that is just an idea 😉
 
La Leche League is a Catholic founded organization.

The statue pictured above is found at the Mission of Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine. It is America’s first parish and site of the first American Mass.

There are little medallions and prayer cards available at the shrine to Our Lady of La Leche. I prayed those often during troubled breastfeeding.
 
The organization was founded by Catholic women…but one of their first decisions was to make it secular–so as not to offend anyone. :nope: Ironically, most of the women I’ve seen involved in the group over the last eight years (at least–here on the Left Coast) have been neo-Pagan Earth worshippers who practice some vauge mish mash of perceived Wicca, dirt fetish, and new age baby talk. They take their belifs for granted and they do not fear offending because they think the “goddess” of the earth is on their side. (Compare this with Who we know is on our side:whistle: )

Alas, if only Christians were so bold and unashamed of their faith–a true faith. An organization named after our Blessed Mother has now been silently rededicated to Dirta…the pagan goddess of all the earth and natural processes.

Most Catholic couples my wife and I talk to here…prefer bottle feeding anyways :banghead: !!! Because breatfeeding is too unnatural…and takes to long!!! (compared to heating up a bottle!!!) I can’t imagine. Sometimes I just walk away shaking my head…a single tear falls form my right eye as I type…to “modern” minded people in the Church today: I say this, “I shall weep for thee. This revolt of thine, methinks, is like another fall of man.”
 
Thank you for all who have replied. I go to a small parish, there are children but most bottle-feed in public, even if they breastfeed at home. I don’t give my babies any bottles, even in church. Breast is best in my book!

I have thought of starting some type of group like that here, but I just don’t know where to start.

For instance, I was at a meeting in which the leader advised about using an alternative form of birth control if the mother feared the baby wasn’t nursing enough to delay cycles. I could never and will never impart that type of advice since I am a faithful Catholic who does not believe in a contraceptive mentality.
 
How beautiful is that statue??? I would love to have a replica of that. I googled it, but didn’t get many hits. Thanks for sharing.

J
 
when I belonged to la Leche in the 70s, when breast feeding was much less common, it was entirely Catholic and the only pro-life organization I knew about, found out about it on my public college campus, did a lot to strengthen my faith by helping me navigate around and through the feminist balderdash rampant at the time. DDs have both joined, membership is more mixed from attachment parenting types, to working moms trying to pump at work and maintain somekind of schedule, earth mother 60s throw-backs, SAHMs, and just gals wanting more information and support than they can get from their doctors.
 
You could start talking about it here. I am sure that there are women that would enjoy having a support system. But I would try your parish first, there are probably women there that are afraid to come out of the closet (or more likely the bathroom stall). There may be people there that are wishing for someone that could help them, and you could be the person to help.

You could get involved in LLL and try to leave religion out of it.

My first child is due in August and I am still very afraid of breastfeeding in public. Especially since I know that a lot of people agree with my mother that it is private so do it in the bathroom stall.
Good luck
Kat
 
Sometimes I just walk away shaking my head…a single tear falls form my right eye as I type…to “modern” minded people in the Church today: I say this said:
I was an adult convert, who had to attend marriage prep with my civilly married husband while 8 months pregnant and unable to wear my wedding ring.

I attempted to breastfeed my three children but due to an autoimmune disorder, cannot stand the pain for more than a few weeks before I go to formula.

In both of these cases, I have had people who claimed to be “good Catholics” condescend to me and judge my holiness by external signs like a ringless finger or a bottle of formula. The majority of women I know who bottlefeed do so after enduring much pain, frustration and guilt attempting to nurse. For whatever reason–they have an exaggerated sense of modesty, they are afraid it will impact their sexual relationship with their husband–they choose to go to a bottle.

You do not know the circumstances behind every person’s decision to go to formula, any more than you know the circumstances behind every couple who has only 2 children. Last I heard, we are supposed to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they have the best of intentions when they make choices we may not.
Click to expand...
 
40.png
Lilyofthevalley:
Is that statue in a church? If so, the folks who balked at a woman nursing in church on that other thread should see that statue. 😃
Click to expand...
good thing i missed that thread. i always nurse at mass, or at least when DS is hungry. would they rather listen to him cry???😉 when we hold baptism seminars the nun and lay people that run it always tell the moms that they are welcome to nurse in church:) And I"m sure our Irish and Asian priests don’t mind because that is what they saw growing up.
How beautiful is that statue??? I would love to have a replica of that. I googled it, but didn’t get many hits. Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...
i just bought that statue last month when i was visiting St. Augustine. you can probably order it from the shrine

I don’t go to LLL for a couple reasons it is too far, we have local lactation consultants that hold 2 weekly meetings. I’m also leary of the secular atmoshpere and the wiccan junk. if we moved it might be different. any organization like that is different from place to place.

I’ve thought about starting a book club for the new Shelia Kippley book “Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood” but haven’t done it yet catholiccompany.com/product_detail.cfm?ID=6739
In both of these cases, I have had people who claimed to be “good Catholics” condescend to me and judge my holiness by external signs like a ringless finger or a bottle of formula. The majority of women I know who bottlefeed do so after enduring much pain, frustration and guilt attempting to nurse.
Click to expand...
I’m so sorry you have exprienced that. I had a lot of difficulty at the beginning and was supplementing at first so I understand tears shed over giving formula and bottles. I wish it was something we grew up seeing all around us because then we’d be like other cultures where woman don’t have most of these issues we encounter because they all know how to do it. It is really a bad cycle in our culture. I do know a lot of people that didn’t do it for superficial reasons too, but as you point out we can not judge only try to support and educate. God knows who really tried and who didn’t want to bother.
 
also here is a bible study on BF

gentlechristianmothers.com/articles/cyndi/bfbible.php

it is from a Protestant so you could find even more in the apocrypha (sp??) i know there is a verse in Macabbees II(sp??-can you tell i’m a bad speller, LOL) that says I carried you for 9 months and nursed you for 3 years. Its right before the revolution.
 
My wife is a “BIG TIME” supporter of LLL, and so am I. My wife had many difficulties nursing when our son was born - but with much help things smoothed out over time and she nursed him up to two years until he weaned on his own. I agree with an earlier post that it’s the single best thing a mother can do for her child in the first few years of life - for som many different reasons. Yes, my wife and I have proudly earned the nickname “nipple nazis” for our staunch support of nursing. But until now I had no idea that LLL was so closely linked to the BVM.
 
God knows who really tried and who didn’t want to bother.
Click to expand...
Funny, I don’t recall there being a commandment that says “Thou shalt breast feed”. Are you implying that it is somehow holier to do one over the other? Or that mothers who don’t breast feed are less loved by God? That sounds pretty harsh and I hope you did not mean to give that impression.

As stated by others, you don’t know why someone may choose to bottle feed over breast feed, and statements like the one above do not support OR educate. They simply turn people off from listening any further to your views. I hope you don’t feel I am “attacking” you, but that is exactly the sort of thing that helps those opposing your view, and doesn’t help your own cause. I’d suggest you try to curb statements like that in order to be taken seriously, and not labeled as an extremist. It is hard not to be emotional about strongly held beliefs, but something that is as personnal decision as this needs to be handled more carefully.
 
It IS impossible to know why someone chooses to bottle feed over breast feeding. I think it is something every expectant mother needs to be educated about and then needs to make the right decision for her and her child. It certainly is not something for others to stand in judgement over or criticize a mother about.

That being said, has anyone considered how when you are a nursing mother and received communion, you are passing on the body and blood of Christ to your child? Does the Church have any teaching on this? It is something I always thought about when I was preganat and when I was nursing.
 
Funny, I don’t recall there being a commandment that says “Thou shalt breast feed”. Are you implying that it is somehow holier to do one over the other? Or that mothers who don’t breast feed are less loved by God? That sounds pretty harsh and I hope you did not mean to give that impression.
Click to expand...
no i’m not implying that breastfeeding mothers are holier or loved by God more. God loves everyone. my statement was echoing what others have said and i said that we can’t know why someone didn’t BF so we can not judge.

there are woman with cases similar to the woman who posted above that had a medical reason for not being able to. there were woman like my mother who got stupid advice from ignorant doctors that sabatoged her ability to maintian supply. and then there are woman like a best friend of mine that said, i know my child probably would be healthier and i know it would lower my risk of cancer but i didn’t want to put up with the sore nipples and i wanted to go back on the pill right away. obviously one of these woman is CHOOSING to not put the best interest of her child first for selfish reasons.
statements like the one above do not support OR educate. They simply turn people off from listening any further to your views. I hope you don’t feel I am “attacking” you, but that is exactly the sort of thing that helps those opposing your view, and doesn’t help your own cause.
Click to expand...
again i didn’t see how my statement was any different from others that said we can not judge. i simply added that only God can. and as far as affecting others choice on how they feed their baby if a person takes my statement as a deciding factor than they are not really working very hard at making an informed decision.

i started with reading what Pope JPII ccli.org/nfp/ebf/jp2.php and Pope Pius XII ccli.org/nfp/ebf/pius12.php had to say and continued with the health risks for both baby and mom for not BF promom.org/101/ I would hope that every expecting mom would start there too and not base their decision on what someone says on a message board.

and i didn’t feel attacked at all. obvioiusly i didn’t make my statement clear and am happy to clarify
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top